Conferences and Conference Options

Our friends at AL Focus have once again provided some great video coverage, this time from last week's Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium.

To relive your fantastic memories, or to find out how much fun you missed, check out this post by Greg Landgraf.

Greg Landgraf at American Libraries has some outstanding coverage of the symposium over at AL Inside Scoop. You can read his detailed and comprehensive coverage symposium events here, here, here and here. Read More »

My parents never bought me a Nintendo when I was a kid. They had this crazy idea that reading was the best way for me to learn and entertain myself, so I had to go over to my neighbors house when I wanted to play The Legend of Zelda or Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. I’d go back home after playing and describe how cool these new games were to my parents, who inevitably rolled their eyes, frustrated at this trendy, expensive new toy their son was dying to have.

As I write this from the 2008 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium, I can’t help but think how far gaming technology has come since the days of 8-but graphics and cheap midi sound effects. At this symposium, gaming is hardly a game—it’s a rapidly evolving and increasingly important part of our profession. More and more, librarians are using gaming to help students of all ages learn, to help adults improve and hone their skills, and to draw young people into a lifetime of library use.
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After attending 20 ALA Annual Conferences (Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, NYC, shaky LA, Chicago...) as a rank-and-file librarian, I arrived in Anaheim late last month in a new role as a first-time exhibitor.  It was an interesting experience, to put it mildly.  I opted to start with a regular 10 x 10 booth exhibit, rather than a table.  Because it was all new to me, I had to learn about costs, who provides which conference services, and generally how to not make a fool of myself.  I think I succeeded, but I have my doubts.

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Every year my preparations for going to the ALA Annual conference go through a series of stages. First, the "Oh, I guess I should buy a ticket and find a hotel room" stage, which fades into the "yes, I know it's coming, but there are still weeks to prepare" stage. Then at some point I start getting emails reminding me about this meeting or that meeting, or I see a note somewhere about a program I really don't want to miss, and amidst all this I think "I should start planning my schedule."

Then, about a week before I leave, I actually try to do it. Read More »

For the past two months I have been involved in a fascinating team effort to plan a one-day conference that will be held in a virtual world environment on Saturday, March 8th. The official name of the conference is "Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education, and Museums" -- VW LEM for short. Although the conference will be held in Second Life, the speakers will be discussing other virtual worlds as well. As the name implies, the participants in this conference will explore how similar but distinct "public good" institutions -- libraries, educational institutions, and museums -- are using virtual world environments to pursue their missions. Read More »